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Talent gets you only so far in motorsport. Putting aside any possible luck in having a fat chequebook, coupling talent with hard work and self-belief will eventually get you where you want to be.

New Zealand is in a purple patch to rival the halcyon days of the 1960s and '70s when Kiwi race car drivers were taking on the world and succeeding at elite level.

In the past few years, we've had Scott Dixon win an Indianapolis 500, two Daytona 24 Hours and a couple of IndyCar titles, Earl Bamber win the Le Mans 24 Hour and a Porsche Supercup title, Brendon Hartley become a world endurance champion and the likes of Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard doing well in the V8 Supercars.

Another name well on the way to making that list is Nick Cassidy, who has just been announced as a driver for the factory-backed Lexus RC-F team in the Japanese Super GT.

Cassidy has won three New Zealand Grand Prix titles and two Toyota Racing Series (TRS) championships and has dabbled in many other junior formula categories in Europe.

His international racing career was piecemeal for a few years until he got the chance to race a full series in the Japanese Formula 3 championship, which he won last year.

Winning that title would have gone a long way to helping the 21-year-old secure the drive with Japanese Tachi Oiwa Motor Sport (Tom's).

"Winning the Japanese F3 championship had a massive influence on my career and was the perfect way to reward Toyota for the support they put into me last year," said Cassidy from Japan after the announcement.

"To then achieve the dream of securing a factory role with Lexus for this year was something I wasn't even sure could happen after just one year in Japan.

"Toyota evaluated me in the Super Formula testing at the end of the [F3] season, which was my first time in the bigger single seater, and I was able to top the rookie time sheets and go faster than my teammate.